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Good morning, panel. Thank you very much for your evidence so far. You have covered quite a lot of the area that I was going to ask about, as often happens to the last questioner. I am thinking about the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law that we hope will happen very soon. What would be the result if it were not possible to agree a comprehensive list of minimum core obligations?

Does anyone else from the panel want to come in?

Thank you very much to the panel. I have really enjoyed the session. Thank you to both of you for what you have already said.

I want to cover how you engage with young people. You talked a lot about that when you answered questions from my colleague Rachael Hamilton, so I will not totally go over that, but are there areas or schools where it is more difficult to get that engagement, or is it the case pretty much across the board that, if you contact local authorities or schools, the MSYPs get access to other young people? Are you encountering any difficulties? If so, is there anything that we as a Scottish Parliament committee can do to help you with that?

You will know that part of an MSP’s job is to go to schools in our constituencies and regions. Would it be helpful if ���˿���, as a matter of course, when speaking to modern studies classes, or whatever we have been asked to speak on, were to make sure that part of their presentation makes schools and classes aware of the Scottish Youth Parliament? Would it be helpful to do some joined-up sessions with local MSYPs?

I am happy for Ramiza to come back in. I have no other questions.

Yes.

Thank you, convener. There is a bit of an echo here, but I hope that you can all hear me okay.

Katy Clark may have stolen my thunder a wee bit. I saw the reply in quite a positive light, from a committee point of view. When we were taking evidence towards the start of the process, we were—as Katy Clark said—looking at really bad cuts, and the picture looked bleak. However, as the cabinet secretary has outlined, he has, as things currently stand, been able to invest in the justice system. To be honest, I think that the committee can take some credit for that. I just wanted to strike a positive note, because we could have been having a very different conversation today. The conversation now is around the edges of things rather than about the overall picture that we were first looking at.

In addition, we have to remember that we are at a very early stage in the budget process, so there might even be scope for further good news, if we want to put it like that.

I read the letter quite positively—I thought that we might have been in a worse position by this point. I therefore echo Katy Clark’s comments. I had already pressed my button to speak as she was speaking, otherwise I would not have said anything. I wanted to put that on record anyway.

I hope that I am not going to take up time, but I want to raise a point while we are on the subject. I am sitting with an email that came into my inbox at 10:41 this morning. It is from a minister who was writing on behalf of someone else who has also contacted my office. I will not mention the person’s name, but they are talking about immigration status and such, and I want to highlight one quote from the email, which says:

“his eviction was dealt with in an inhumane manner.”

It is incumbent on us, as parliamentarians, to represent constituents, and we all do that, but the fact that we are talking about this issue and I am sitting with an email that I got at 10:41 this morning means that it was worth raising that point. That is all I wanted to do.

I suppose that it is almost the other side of Pam Gosal’s line of questioning.

The Criminal Justice Committee was out at Glasgow sheriff court recently and we saw, I think, 13 hearings that day. Our visit was about the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill, but what struck me and other members of that committee was the disproportionate number of BME individuals—young BME males—who were up. We have often heard about that disproportion and something appears—I am being careful with my words—to be wrong at a societal level for it to exist.

I have to say for clarity that we saw only one session of 13 hearings that day. We will find out more about whether it is reflective of the overall situation as we take evidence at the committee.

Like Mariam Ahmed said, I do not know whether we have time to go round the witnesses on this area, but I asked the previous panel a question on this, and we got a good discussion out of it. I was going to ask about the bill to incorporate international human rights treaties, in particular the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. I am sure that, as that bill moves through the Parliament, all the organisations represented here and many others, as well as individuals, will be involved.